Like Cats and Dogs: Contesting The Mu Koan In Zen Buddhism

Despite the popularity of koan stories in Western Buddhist scholarship, the complexity of their formation and the different ramifications in subsequent developments of the tradition in China, Korea, and Japan have been frequently overlooked. In Like Cats and Dogs, Steven Heine fills this gap by engaging philosophical, soteriological, historical, geographical, and many more layers of the koan tradition with a sustained focus on the famous Mu Koan. His writing is clear and reading this is most enjoyable. Readers will be pleasantly surprised by the transformation that this book brings to their understanding of Zen Buddhism and koan practice. ― Jin Y. Park, author of Buddhism and Postmodernity: Zen, Huayan, and the Possibility of Buddhist Postmodern Ethics

Steven Heine’s Like Cats and Dogs examines the history of the famous Mu koan…This classic puzzle becomes even more puzzling when the broader textual record is taken into consideration. ― Buddhadharma